American Inmate Takes On Harsh Japanese Prison System

In a challenge to Japan’s highly restrictive prison system, an American filed a lawsuit Thursday charging that he was forced to spend four years in solitary confinement for refusing a haircut on religious grounds.

Attorneys for 39-year-old Johnny Crittenden, who is seeking $860,000 in damages, said their client is a Rastafarian.

The suit filed in the Tokyo District Court also charges that Crittenden was punished arbitrarily, beaten, and confined with leather belts and wrist guards that left him unable to eat and barely able to breathe.

Japan has come under repeated international criticism for its harsh prison system. Amnesty International said in a report released late last year that prison guards, police officers and immigration officials have subjected foreigners in detention to violent punishment, sexual assault and racist behavior. The Japanese government rejected those charges as biased and unfair.

Makoto Teranaka, an Amnesty International Japan board member, said a Japanese court ruled recently in favor of a Japanese prisoner and awarded him $5,200 in damages for abuses he suffered in prison, but decisions against the authorities are rare.

“There’s almost no chance of winning against the system in Japan,” Teranaka said. “The government would have to admit it was at fault, and the concept of challenging the system is not well established in Japan.”

Attorneys with the Tokyo Kyodo law office, which is representing Crittenden, declined to say what he was convicted of, citing privacy reasons. His six-year sentence at Tokyo’s Fuchu prison ends in January.

They said he is from Georgia but declined to say what city. He plans to return to the United States after leaving prison, although he will continue pursuing the suit.

“For Crittenden, this is not a matter of money,” said Kazuo Hizumi, an attorney at Tokyo Kyodo. “It’s a matter of justice. Our law firm feels the same way.”

Officials at Fuchu prison and the Justice Ministry said they had not seen the complaint and declined to comment.

A government statement said the criminal justice system guarantees the human rights of suspects and prisoners, entitles detainees to file lawsuits and prohibits confessions made under duress from being used as evidence. “We believe we treat prisoners in a proper manner,” a ministry official said.

Crittenden’s attorneys said he was placed in solitary confinement for more than four years for refusing to cut his hair to the 1-centimeter maximum length required at the prison.

“Fuchu prison put him on night-and-day solitary confinement,” said Yuichi Kaido, Crittenden’s lead attorney. “For more than 4 1/2 years, he was not able to speak with other inmates.”

The lawyers charged that Crittenden was confined to a room approximately 6 feet by 8 feet, and denied most letter-writing, television and other privileges enjoyed by other inmates.

According to the suit, early in his sentence, Crittenden turned his head when a prison official touched his face after noticing that he hadn’t shaved. The official then allegedly hit Crittenden several times in the face and called other prison officials to hold him down.

The suit alleges that Crittenden’s hands were then constrained in leather handcuffs attached to a strap around his waist that was so tight his lungs were constricted, resulting in a deep indent and abrasions around his waist.

Hizumi said the holes used to buckle the leather waist strap are 5 inches apart, so each tightening is severe. Lying down made it impossible for Crittenden to breath, so he would stand for 24 hours straight, the lawyers said.

The law firm said it filed similar suits alleging abuse on behalf of four other prisoners--two Japanese, another American and an Iranian. Those cases still are pending.

Robert Grondine, an attorney in Japan with White & Case LLP, and vice president of the local American Chamber of Commerce, said he doubted Crittenden’s lawsuit would succeed because Japan has a different view of punishment than the West.

But Crittenden’s lawyers believe that they have a chance. Japan is gradually changing in response to international pressure, they said, and Crittenden’s behavior was generally exemplary.

Last month, a U.N. human rights committee also criticized Japan’s strict penal system, harsh punishment and infringements of basic rights in a report, citing the use of leather handcuffs “that may constitute cruel and inhuman treatment.”

Eizo Yamagiwa, head of a Japanese watchdog group called Human Rights and the Media, said Fuchu prison, which is used to house repeat offenders and foreigners, is notorious.

Under Japan’s penal system, wardens have enormous discretion to set standards, he said. Prisoners may be ordered to sit absolutely still for hours at a time without moving their eyes, looking up or making eye contact. Those who disobey are subject to solitary confinement and leather cuffs, which remain on even during meals.

“The prisoners have to kneel down and eat like a dog,” he said, citing interviews with former prisoners.

Monitoring groups say control at Fuchu borders on the absolute.

“Prisoners have been harshly punished for washing parts of their body without permission, lying the wrong way on their bed, opening their eyes at inappropriate times, speaking without permission and ‘answering back’ to prison guards,” Amnesty said. “Regard for individual personality and human rights is sacrificed in favor of an overriding emphasis on total obedience and absolute control.”

Yamagiwa of Human Rights and the Media said winning an abuse case against prison authorities requires proof, including medical reports--which Crittenden’s lawyers say they have--and photographs that counter official testimony.

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Etsuko Kawase of The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.